Promotional Decisions 3

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Promotional Mix

The promotional mix is the combination of different promotional methods that a business uses. For example, a business might advertise largely through TV, but also do some social media advertising and have sponsorship deals in place with athletes. Factors influencing the promotional mix are:

Finance available

Some businesses will have much more finance (money) available to spend on promotions.
Some promotional methods (e.g. TV advertising) are more expensive than others.
Smaller businesses with less finance are less likely to be able to afford TV advertising.

Competitor actions

The promotional mix of competitors might influence a business because they may want to reach consumers using the same channel as rivals.

The nature of the product or service

The type of product (or service) will influence which promotional method needs to be used.
A technical product like a laptop may want to give consumers more information about their product, whilst a simple product like orange juice (Tropicana juice for example) may not need to give info.
A fashion label like Hugo Boss does not have much information to communicate. How their products look is more important.

The nature of the market

As a market matures, the rate of growth changes.
- If a market is growing slowly, advertising may be less important.
- If a market is growing fast, then businesses will be battling for market share and are willing to spend more on advertising as it will affect sales by a larger amount.

Target market

A business' target market for a product (or service) will affect the promotional method that they use because different types of people use different platforms more often.
A business wants to promote its product to its potential customers.
A business that produces women’s underwear will not usually want to promote their product to middle-aged men.

Reasons for Promotion

There are 4 main reasons why businesses use promotion:

To inform/remind customers about the product

A business cannot sell a product (or service) if no consumers know about it.
Businesses must be able to inform their target market about their product (or service) and remind people, at the right time, in the hope that they will buy it.
Reminding customers at the right time is key. There is not much point in promoting Christmas baubles on the 26th December.

To create or increase sales

Informing consumers that are not aware of a business’ products can ‘create’ new sales.
By constantly reminding existing customers about a product (or service) and its benefits, businesses can increase the sales from each customer.
This is more likely to happen during the periods before short “sales windows” like Easter and Christmas.

To create or change the image of a product (or service)

A promotion can have a large impact on how customers see a product. If a celebrity uses the product, a business can give the product a fun, luxury or innovative image.
UnderArmour sponsored golfers like Jordan Spieth to create a youthful and cool image after they launched their golf and sporting wear ranges.
A promotion can help to change customers’ perception of a product.

To persuade customers to buy the product

Promotions are often used to advertise the benefits of using a product and to explain why you should buy it.
These are attempts to persuade the customer that this is the best product for them.